Tag Archives: poultry

I timed my final harvest of carrots down to about the last possible second.

This was the first week of December and the ground hadn’t yet frozen. If I had gotten to this job just a day or two earlier, it would not have involved snow.

As you can see, the chickens have been moved into their winter quarters inside the garden fence where I can run an extension cord to plug their coop in for supplemental light and a heated water dish.

The garlic seed is snugly tucked into the ground and poultry net has been strung around the garlic beds in case the chickens get over exuberant.

At this point, the sheep were still getting most of their nutrition from grazing. As you can see here, the lawn was still quite green. Plenty of forage was available in most of the pasture. This is really remarkable. Often, by mid October I am feeding hay because there is no forage left, but this year it just kept right on growing until it got covered with snow in early December.

I take pasture photos at 6 standard locations on the first of each month as a form of research and record keeping. This was the 12/1/16 photo of Paddock 1.

Today, we are experiencing a real winter deep freeze. The benefit of weather so cold that I’m reluctant to step outside is that I do finally get around to the paperwork and computer projects that had been languishing when I was working on outside projects.

If you live nearby, save the postage and contact us to set up a time to stop in and do your shopping in person. If you live farther away, this little online store is a great option for having a look at the products available and getting them delivered right to your door via USPS.

Stay warm and enjoy the vibrant sunshine that usually comes with the bitter cold.

Back in mid March, I took a day away from the farm to join Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) in Madison for their Farm & Rural Lobby Day. It was a great experience. I carpooled with Linda and Cathy to Stevens Point and then we vanpooled with other WFU members from the central part of the state. WFU scheduled meetings for us with our Senators and Representatives, in our case, Janet Bewley and Beth Meyers. Policy staff at WFU had prepared really nice documents to share at these meetings on 4 priority topics: Supporting UWEX, Nonpartisan Redistricting, Rural Broadband and a Well Dispute Settlement Program proposal. We also had the opportunity to bring up other topics of importance to us. For Linda, Cathy and me, supporting UWEX was especially important and we each had examples of ways in which UWEX has been extremely valuable to us over the years.

We asked that our legislators let us know when they are in Price County so we could meet with them to continue the conversations.

Not long afterwards, I got a call from Beth Meyers’ staff person asking if she could come to tour my farm and learn about agriculture in Price County. Of course I was thrilled to host her. The day when Beth visited here, she also toured Linda and Gerry Ceylor’s Organic Valley dairy farm and had a listening session with a group of farmers in Catawba.

Just before Beth arrived here, a Channel 12 – Rhinelander van pulled in and Ben Meyer asked if he could tag along on the tour. Turns out this meant with video camera in tow! Good thing I didn’t have advance warning, I would have had time to get nervous. Here is his take on my visit with Beth Meyers: http://www.wjfw.com/storydetails/20160422174529

Who would guess that this little farm hand could become a self propelled projectile able to fell a slowly ambling object more than 5 times her height?

Scout finishes off the spoils

I learned a good lesson that day… Never cheer on and encourage your four legged friends to run and chase unless you are viewing from a safe position. They came racing through at top speed and reached me just as one foot was leaving the ground and the other was just beginning to touch the ground.

Sophie’s center of gravity won and mine approached the ground at the speed of gravity. The 14 eggs I was carrying went sailing. One landed safely in the grass. The rest were cleaned up before I could regain my feet by these savvy little helpers who were well aware of what nectar the lovely, large, brown gems contained.

They had managed to clean up all but 5 before I could intervene. And this is where the issue of indoor air quality comes in… If someone in your household consumes their weight in eggs (an exaggeration), be sure to keep them in a well ventilated space until the offending matter has passed through their system… Phew!!

Happily only the eggs were harmed in this encounter.

Being slow to learn and typically needing more than one lesson for things to sink in, I was nearly knocked over one more time recently and this time the projectile was even smaller. Our cat Chaplin, in mid dog chase, bumped into one of my feet while I walked (again with egg basket in hand) and it was all I could do to maintain my footing. And save the eggs.

Chaplin – Always willing to help out

These frisky little furry friends sure are entertaining, but must be approached with caution.

PRENTICE, Wis. – Previously a commercial architect living in downtown Chicago, Jane Hansen moved with her husband, Chris Wallner, to Price County 15 years ago — to become a farmer.

She’s still building, but now she’s building connections in the local-foods arena. Though she stepped down as coordinator of the Wisconsin Local Food Network in April, she remains active and looks forward to the 10th-annual Wisconsin Local Food Summit, to be held Jan. 14-15, 2016, at the Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan Falls. She helped plan the first nine summits.

“We are excited that Jane will be assisting us in bringing local food to our state convention in January,” said Lloyd of Wisconsin Farmers Union’s Jan. 29-31 gathering at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton. “It is a priority for our members to directly support farmers and the local economy by buying local food for our meals together.”

Hansen raises sheep and poultry, and direct-markets artisan wool products and more. She named her farm Autumn Larch for swamp-loving Tamarack trees in the Larch family. The trees produce a second round of golden color in the fall after hardwoods have lost their leaves. The farm’s sheep are Coopworth, a breed from New Zealand that originated from mating Border Leicester and Romney.

“It’s a strong dual-purpose breed,” she said of high-quality wool and meat production.

The hardy breed fits her pasture-based management, which includes wintering outside with woods as windbreak. Although not certified organic, Hansen uses garlic to boost sheep immunity and stave off internal parasites. Year-round she feeds fresh-ground garlic in grain once a week, at the rate of one to two cloves per head per week. She deworms ewes by drenching with garlic juice. Each 150-pound ewe receives 5 cubic centimeters each of garlic juice and aloe juice with 20 cubic centimeters of water.

An avid learner and armchair researcher, Hansen uses an herbal “antibiotic” called artemesia annua — known as wormwood or sweet annie – to control liver fluke in her sheep.

“These are things I’m dabbling in,” she said. “It’s part of the buckshot I use to try to solve problems.”

Her laying flock of red hens supplies several customers with eggs. She also makes nine fragrances of soap and unscented “Not So Plain Jane” soap, which pokes fun at her name. Some of her herbal soap is wrapped in felted wool; no washcloth is necessary with the unique bath-and-shower product.

In addition to attending craft fairs, Hansen belongs to Countryside Artists’ Gallery in the Fred Smith house at the Wisconsin Concrete Park in Phillips. In 1948, Smith, at 62, started creating artwork that resulted in more than 230 embellished concrete figures in his yard. The concrete folk art is a tourist attraction, which is an outlet for Hansen’s products.

An avid market-vegetable grower, Hansen specializes in hardier produce such as salad greens, cabbage, onions and garlic. She extends her season with a hoop greenhouse. In October she planted about 1,700 cloves of garlic, some of which is braided. The cloves will be decorative in customers’ kitchens. Grocers also buy her garlic for resale.

One of many local-foods connections Hansen has forged is with the Phillips School District and Food Service Director Terra Gastman.

“I really enjoy working with Jane,” Gastman said of a farm-to-school partnership with Hansen. “She emails me each week and lets me know what she has available. We have made fresh squash for the kids several times this year. We have some saved to serve with our Thanksgiving lunch at school.

“The kids do notice when the produce is fresh. Fresh oven-roasted zucchini is a favorite. Jane’s fresh vegetables are a great addition to our lunch program.”

Vice-president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union’s Price and Taylor counties’ unit, Hansen is active in the farm organization’s local-foods promotions.

“Wisconsin is a leader in the country for work on developing a vibrant local and regional food system,” said Sarah Lloyd, Wisconsin Farmers Union special projects coordinator. “Jane Hansen has been an important leader in the network of farmers, organizations, agencies and consumers that are working on the issue.”

More snow is expected tomorrow, but we’re feeling quite satisfied with the amount we currently have. What do you suppose I have lost under the snow? The next photo will give a bit of a clue and the one after that will show you exactly what it is.